3rds short on runs again

4 for Baiju on his return and Sam Fransham gets his first senior wickets.

KCC 3s faced Stonesfield at home on Saturday on a cool and windy day. The pitch was in decent condition despite the heavy rain but batting was never easy. Kidlington won the toss and decided to bowl, the opening pair of Ran De Silva and Oscar Hewitt did a great job of containing the batsmen but couldn't find a breakthrough. It took the long awaited return of Baiju Saleem to get the first wicket and he went on to take 3 more in an excellent spell of 9-0-33-4. He consistently troubled the batsmen and was unlucky not to get more wickets. At the other end Sam Fransham did a fantastic job in supporting Baiju and was rewarded with his first two wickets in senior cricket, the first one coming in spectacular fashion as he clean bowled the Stonesfield captain. A strong Stonesfield side batted well down the order and piled on the runs towards the end despite a decent effort from Kidlington bowlers. The target set was 199, a good total on a tricky wicket.
After a good tea we set off in pursuit with Razwan Dogar and Josh Behal opening the batting, they got off to a good start, both hitting boundaries and looking comfortable. However, Raz was struck on the throat and seemed rather unsettled by this, he soon went and this started a bit of a collapse as Kidlington struggled to build partnerships. Gary Woods looked in good form but was unlucky to fall to a superb catch. The captain managed to hang around for 36 but once again we lacked any depth in our batting and fell well short of our target. A good day for the bowlers, but our batters need to dig deep for our next challenge at Stanton Harcourt.